Why Paul Ryan Needs the Freedom Caucus

Benjamin Domenech

Politics, Americas

Without the Freedom Caucus, Ryan would not be speaker. He needs to be speaker with them, not against them.

For more than seven years, the Republican Party has made its hay running against the spectre of Obamacare. Ever since Scott Brown won the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat in January of 2010, GOP candidates have been excoriating President Obama’s signature domestic policy for the many ways it has failed to live up to its promised outcomes—failures that have seen premiums spike and market choices diminish. For seven years, Republican politicians of all varieties claimed to be united on this one point: at the earliest opportunity, Obamacare would be repealed.

So how do we explain the failure of this seven-year effort in such a rushed, bizarre process, with legislation that left so many stakeholders, policy experts and activist groups disappointed and frustrated?

The truth is that underlying the unified front Republicans wanted to project, there has been steadily boiling dissent about legislation and strategy related to Obamacare’s repeal. This was a dissenting scene based not just on ideological differences, but on practical concerns as well.

From the moment that House Speaker Paul Ryan rolled out the American Health Care Act, there was dissent internally and externally about key aspects of the legislation. Many of the parties who had spent seven years working on the question of health reform claimed they were never consulted on the measure. Key conservative health policy wonks such as Yuval Levin, Avik Roy and Chris Jacobs were critical of Ryan’s approach and advocated for changes. Conservative groups like The Heritage Foundation and the Club for Growth were joined by the AARP and hospital and medical groups in opposition. The last poll taken about the legislation showed its support at a mere 17 percent.

Ryan and his leadership team seemed not to care, pressing forward despite the bill’s unpopularity and a real lack of awareness on the part of many members about how this measure would impact their districts. As Friday approached, they even lacked a CBO score, given the flurry of final amendments designed to please Freedom Caucus members concerned about leaving Obamacare’s regulations on the books and moderates increasingly concerned about coverage losses.

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